"He will report to our vice president of online technologies and work closely with the executive team to help fine-tune the next version of Battle.net, currently in development," Blizzard's Bob Colayco said. The online service is currently going through an overhaul, with the new version expected to roll out in time for the launch of Starcraft II or Diablo III, whichever comes first.

Putting someone with so much experience in "casual" games into the Battle.Net project is an interesting call. PopCap is known for creating experiences that anyone can get into, but often hold a hidden depth after long play times. Blizzard is very similar in many ways, and Battle.Net should be, above all, inclusive. This is exciting news.

It's still a ways off, so we can only only speculate on what the second iteration of Battle.Net will be like, and just what role Canessa will play in shaping it. We contacted Canessa for comment, but have yet to hear back as of press time.

Update: Canessa has confirmed to Ars that he will be working as project director for Battle.Net, as well as other unannounced projects.